NEW DELHI : The central government on Monday announced minimum support prices (MSPs) of 14 kharif crops, planting for which will begin shortly with the progress of the annual monsoon.
MSPs of major rain-fed crops such as paddy, maize, arhar, moong, urad, groundnut, soybean and cotton for the 2020-21 marketing season were raised by a modest 2-5% compared to a year earlier.
This marginal increase is unlikely to cheer farmers who have been battered by a steep fall in prices of perishables in the past few months because of a coronavirus lockdown-induced fall in demand and repeated supply disruptions.
MSP is the price at which government agencies purchase crops from farmers. India’s kharif season starts with the onset of the monsoon in June and